Milestone exp is always an option :).
I discarded that choice before I posted the Recruitment OP. It of course works better in something like our intro-adventure here in The Styes. And further to some extent in The Nine Hells. But once we are in The Abyss, (which though it may be a while considering the nature of PbP) we really need to be on an XP track. The Concordance of The Abyss is just so Sandbox, y'all going here and there in The Abyss, making your own schedule and deciding when to flee or retreat back to Heidmarch Manor in Magnimar, and it's so open-ended -- yeah, XP tracking is important.
Of course, one of the benefits of having a large group at the outset, when we are still getting used to each other and our own PbP routine, is that we could lose a PC or two. It's possible that we won't get Mishanter back, and that puts us at 6. A few months from now we could be at 5. Now, I'm really hoping Mishanter returns -- I absolutely love that PC concept and he really fits perfectly in my homebrew as a future NPC ally of one of my characters in Kaer Maga. So I really want to see more of him. But it doesn't look like he's posted anywhere on The Boards in a good week.
Okay we just started Initiative and I am running to my Friday night game.
The Knowledge check to identify the four Wights is pretty low.
The Knowledge Check to identify the Undead Leader who's using Telepathy is harder.
I'll be back Saturday sometime.
@DM Ray: K'Tak's init is actually 13; he gets another +2 from favored terrain. (This doesn't change his spot in the init order - after the wights, before the Leader). Also, can we have a map??
@All: We can add #10 to our options list. Take down these mooks, and then either a) figure out a way to capture and interrogate the telepathic undead (PS. Remember to make your K Religion checks folks) or b) follow their tracks back to wherever they came from (and presumably this Master who has the Lantern Man's Axe now).
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Since you say you have a combat coming up, here let me give you a passive perception and a clear party split so you can have some fun.
@DM Rey you missed Muziel, was because he withdrew and I missed it or just that he hadn’t posted recently? Here is a roll for him.
Initiative Tracker
Muziel (26), Par (22), Sabella (17).
|—Undead Mooks (16)
|—|—K’Tak’Ktah’hal (11)
|—|—|—Undead Leader (10)
|—|—|—|—Artemisia (10), Valeria (4)
In case Saturday posts go quickly here is a conditional action so we don’t stall out.
@Par - Lunge doesn't work like that:
You can strike foes that would normally be out of reach.Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: You can increase the reach of your melee attacks by 5 feet until the end of your turn by taking a –2 penalty to your AC until your next turn. You must decide to use this ability before any attacks are made.
It won't give you reach on their turn, when the AoO's would happen...
@Par - Lunge doesn't work like that:
It won't give you reach on their turn, when the AoO's would happen...
You can strike foes that would normally be out of reach.Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: You can increase the reach of your melee attacks by 5 feet until the end of your turn by taking a –2 penalty to your AC until your next turn. You must decide to use this ability before any attacks are made.
Uff, I am dumb. Hopefully I am allowed to retcon. My dice are still terrible :) .
Retconning my action into something very similar then.In my defense, normally its "you gain X and lose Y until the end of your turn".
It is still useful, while large sized it helps reduce situation where I would have to squeeze for example.
I'm confident someone will successfully recognize, via a DC 13 Knowledge Religion, that the four mooks are Wights. And then announce it as a free action on their turn.
DC 13 is for Undead Traits & some flavor or background; DC 18 is for Energy Drain on a Slam attack; DC 23 for more info, etc. But absent that initial Knowledge Religion check, Par's internal monologue regarding the Wight's 'dangerous' Energy Drain is meta. Without the Knowledge Check, well, these could be zombies, or they could be ghouls -- or as far as you know, Dragons or Goblins or Pit Fiends.
RAW is 10+ CR for basic traits & Flavor, +5 for each additional point of tactical info.
Thanks for rolling for me! I am sorry I keep falling behind on posts, it's been a rough stretch at work and at home, and it might continue this month.
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Thanks for rolling for me! I am sorry I keep falling behind on posts, it's been a rough stretch at work and at home, and it might continue this month.
No trouble, I know how sometimes life pulls people away from the boards.
Initiative Tracker
Muziel (26), Par (22), Sabella (17).
|—Undead Mooks (16)
|—|—K’Tak’Ktah’hal (11)
|—|—|—Undead Leader (10)
|—|—|—|—Artemisia (10), Valeria (4)
I don't think we're waiting on me, I am waiting for what wights do...
Also, a map would be good; with Muziel's haste, I can close 30' (including the difficult terrain factor) and still attack. If the wights are getting chopped to pieces by Par, I might be able to go round them and go for the leader type ( but that's really hard to assess without a map)... If not I am either closing with a wight and taking a standard attack (or if they have closed to within 10' of me, I can full attack using Lunge).
I'm coming, hopefully Monday, for the Wights. Had great game sessions both Friday night and Sunday, though Sunday's was shortened so a few players could embrace familial events -- so then a couple gaming buddies and I went to the LGS for miniatures. I got a fricking AWESOME miniature for Geryon and another for Orcus! So bad ass.
How was everyone else's weekend?
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I'm going to post actions for the Wights first, to keep things moving, but I'm also going to spend time trying to figure out Roll20. I started a campaign page for this PbP; I'll try to figure out how to upload an editable map. It may take time, lessons welcome.
If Roll20 is being a pain, using google docs to show a map actually works quite well. I'm in several PBP campaigns that use it. Not perfect but it works ok, especially in any situation that doesn't involve map features that are hidden from the players (traps, secret doors; simple LOS blockage can be handled by drawing boxes overtop the bits that can't be seen).
rough couple days, sorry -- back asap
Happens, real life is often a b@&%&
It's just stressful -- I have time now (and have had a few minutes each day this week) but I'm so stressed out about the market. My business has had a really bad week this week.
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Sorry to hear work is stressful, that is always the pits. Hopefully elfgames help. I’ve included an updated conditional attack if you want to include bow fire results with the Wight leader’s actions, and I’ll include those results in Artemisia’s next post in gameplay.
Initiative Tracker, Round One
Muziel (26), Par (22), Sabella (17).
|—Undead Mooks (16)
|—|—K’Tak’Ktah’hal (11)
|—|—|—Undead Leader (10)
|—|—|—|—Artemisia (10), Valeria (4)
Conditional
If his turn or this roll indicates he’s a spell caster, ready bow fire to interrupt spellcasting, else full attack to fire the bow 2 times at wights. Shoot at the most injured wight with each shot. After firing (either via readied attack or full attack) free action to hold the bow with one hand, allowing her to AoO with cestus if needed.
Val will move forward slowly and steady. If she gets close enough to strike she slash at the nearest Wight.
Sorry about no map this fight.
I think I can get it for my Obsidian Portal account. (for next fight)
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I'm getting these posts out as fast as I can -- y'all are so fast! .... I know it's a Threat, Par, I just can't type this fast, LOL
Is my final Wight Staggered for Round 2? Please let me know, thanks.
Is my final Wight Staggered for Round 2? Please let me know, thanks.
Actually, was your wight staggered at all? It's a fort save... and the wight is undead type.
I will adjust my sheat to be more GM friendly, with all abilties seeable on a glance, tomorow, currently to drunk for it :).
As in, sufficiently drunk that I almost vital striked while hasted lel.
Quick query for DM Ray, is the Cadaver Lord still standing after Par's attacks?
Was your Wight Staggered at all?
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That Wight was just brilliantly, geniusly, tactically, pretending to be Staggered cuz, um, it's a brilliant, genius, tactical mastermind and knew it was too impossible of a fight. Yeah, truly -- trust me!
See? Told ya!
Whenever I miss something, such as Lady Sabella's request for the time, point it out again. Sooner or later I will see it.
Certainly Fatigue can start to set in, and then Exhaustion. But there's not dire consequences likely if you keep going before rest. You have to decide.
Without extraordinary ideas, it is unlikely that you will be able to track the Cadaver Lord back to his Master from Fever Dream Alley. I segued your "exhaustive investigation" for expediency. Take 20 on the Perception and get nothing. Of course, one never wants to tell the PCs 'Hell No,' so if you can actually think of something?....
(Part of why you're 8th here is no Commune or Contact other Plane, no Legend Lore or Vision.). Still if you come up with an awesome idea. .... But there are plenty of other strands to follow. And of course, tracking the Cadaver Lord to a Master that can Create and Control Cadaver Lords with a Level of Urban Ranger & three Levels of Rogue so close to Fatigue, and with no information on what kind of other resources that Master has,.... Um. Yeah.
Who says we can't cast Contact Other Plane?!
At 7th level, an occultist can cast augury once per day and contact other plane once per week, using her arcanist level as her caster level.
Also, I believe fatigue only sets in if you stay up the entire night, and get zero sleep. Obviously, as a caster, Sabella will need 8 hours, but she should be good for a few more, then sleep late(ish).
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So my vote is inn + divination then rest then do the next thing.
Create treasure map let’s the DM direct us to the next logical stop in their planning. It’s honestly the best part of being a diviner, just giving the dm easy rails with no need to hide the ball.
Fatigue is a downer for the people rolling to hit, so after divining, I vote we get our sleep on and let the module advance a bit. Fights that are more difficult because the bad guys numbers went up usually feel better than fights that are more difficult because your party is tired. I suppose one of us will want to learn nap stack eventually.
In the morning we can follow up either with the map or with the other disparate hooks.
LOL
Looks like Contact other Plane is viable!
(This is why DMs never say 'Hell No'!)
And of course, tracking the Cadaver Lord ... with a Level of Urban Ranger & three Levels of Rogue ...
He only gets favored community at 3ed level of Urban Ranger, so he leaves tracks... not to mention his 4 buddies don't have ranger levels at all. I have favored terrain urban, I can probably do it. Tactically though, you may have a point...
because that sounds like bluff to pass a hidden message: don't make me come up with this on the fly... or you'll regret it.
They've been lounging here for four days and, especially in Bridgefront, tracks don't last long. But I will absolutely find the appropriate DC if you want to try. Thinking it through I havd to admit that if you do get a high enough Survival to see from where the five came, you could reach another 'circumstantial-evidence' clue.
A rest seems the best course of action. I see a good opportunity and we have a variety of leads to follow.
Also I really like the map idea. And we can contact other plane as well
All the sudden and to my astonishment, I'm really liking this Contact other Plane idea. I'm admittedly terrified if you fail your INT check and lose your INT & CHA for several days, effectively taking you out of combat for the entirety of 'The Styes' adventure. But the potential thread of having made contact with a Power prior to the heart of this campaign is juicy-intriguing.
Looking at the spell closely (I'm so used to PCs using Commune instead) I see that there's no RAW for me to determine whom you will contact. Of course if you choose an Outer Plane I'll conform to your Alignment and then create a random roll to see who you get. If you choose Elemental, Energy or Astral, I'll just roll randomly.
The question now is, do you have four good 'one-word-answer' questions? Would the group prefer to exhaust other non-Divine avenues first? ... But when/if the time comes -- now that I've thought about it -- I am really rooting for this to work. The later-on fun that can be had from this event of roleplaying is great. One of those 'I'm glad I made a mistake in design' moments.
I'm glad you like my idea! I really went out of my way to build a PC that tied into the core of both the game, and the setting. Occultist was absolutely perfect for that. The only thing that would have been personally better was if I could also take School Savant(for Conjuration), but the two archetypes both give up the exploits at 1st and 7th level.
Okay, after the weekend of posting we have a solid four suggestions to rest now without any push back.
I'm going to go ahead and move Gameplay along but try to be a little open-ended so you can roleplay or suggest something else.
I'm going to imply that you're staying at Mister Refrum's in The Alchemists' Quarter on Garrison Hill rather than going back across The Saint Alika Narrows to your room in Whitecaps. (There was one mention for each.)
Whoops, sorry I lodged my post inside a quote box. Mister Refrum's makes a lot of sense.
Rest is reasonable, Pär volunteers for first watch.
Given his far from zero degrees of paranoia, he would prefer a communal sleeping arrangement (same room, not same bed) with other party members.
Sleeping in an isolated spot in the worldwound gets you killed.
If y'all want to get your questions ready for Mister Refrum -- where does the Lamplighter live & what's his deal; what's The Truth & Light; where were the other murders -- whichever and etcetera? (Gameplay suggests Par is going to awaken Mister Refrum as he sleeps; y'all can do that or remind Par that Dude's asleep.). Refrum also may have a solution about the corpses -- if you don't like The Mortuary. Anyway, you can post questions here in an easy metagame construct, or in Gameplay with role. I'll start on the answers Tuesday.
also posting the locations of the murders asap (today certainly)
Sorry for not posting the last few days, my tinnitus has been acting up. Thankfully, I see my doc tomorrow, and hope to get it all straightened out.
Prior to going to bed, Sabella will be casting Contact Other Plane.
She has four questions she can ask, and while they can be fairly long ones(there's no word limit), answers are limited to one word.
What should she be asking?
A question: What do we know about the murder victims? Is there a common thread? One method of hunting predators is to use a tethered goat...
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Prior to going to bed, Sabella will be casting Contact Other Plane.
She has four questions she can ask, and while they can be fairly long ones(there's no word limit), answers are limited to one word.
What should she be asking?
Who are we speaking to?
Would it benefit the being we contacted if we found the relic?
Who created the relic?
Where is the relic, right now?
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That's what I think is most pressing for interesting play, feel free to make them wordier if that is in Sabella's style of speaking.
Updated Artemisia's spell's prepared for the day, she's shifting her spell actions slightly towards combat on the assumption we'll run into more unpleasantness today.
I've had a good two days of business as gold finally went up -- whew -- and have been busy. Friday night is one of my homegames so it'll be Saturday when I can get into Gameplay.
I'll post Mister Refrum giving the info on the four locations but he obviously doesn't have a ton of knowledge beyond directions to the places, what the places are, and their event order.
If someone wants to post something like, 'Let's maybe go here first and there second' -- or if y'all want to posit some voting positions, post them now. Gaming investigations are usually a bit more playable when they're Sandbox'y rather than 'Must Be' a 'Point-A-leads-to-Point-B' railroad (since you never know if the players will react a certain way to a clue, even whether they find it at all). So, it won't really matter as much if you go 'Here' or 'There' first or second or third.. But I'll be posting y'alls' trip to somewhere on Saturday!
@ K'Tak -- ask Mister Refrum in Gameplay and he'll give the details -- short answer is 'No,' there is no commonality (except they're all in The Styes where Jarme Loveage lives).
@ Artemisia Burningleaves -- remember that the Power one asks questions of in Contact other Plane is "resentful" of being disturbed and answers "briefly" with a Yes or No or Maybe or Irrelevant -- almost always one-word answers.
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@ Artemisia Burningleaves -- remember that the Power one asks questions of in Contact other Plane is "resentful" of being disturbed and answers "briefly" with a Yes or No or Maybe or Irrelevant -- almost always one-word answers.
Sure, and a sample set of answers:
John
Yes
Sara
North
Idk, as with all divinations it’s very much in the land of the story never changes as a result of divination so ask interesting things to let your DM mess with you rather than spend a bunch of effort in an attempt to logic trap a figurative god.
It’s sabella’s spell so hopefully they have fun writing a suitably spooky moment!